Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Sights
Catania's sights are concentrated within a few blocks of Piazza del Duomo.
Piazza del Duomo
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SQUARE
A Unesco World Heritage Site, Catania's central square revolves around its grand cathed-
ral, fringed with baroque buildings constructed in the unique local style of contrasting
lava and limestone. The piazza's centrepiece is the smiling Fontana dell'Elefante
OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP (Piazza del Duomo) , crowned by a naive black-lava elephant dat-
ing from the Roman period and surmounted by an improbable Egyptian obelisk.
At the piazza's southwest corner, the Fontana dell'Amenano OFFLINE MAP GOOGLE MAP
fountain marks the entrance to Catania's fish market and commemorates the Amenano
River, which once ran above ground and on whose banks the Greeks first founded the city
of Katáne.
Cattedrale di Sant'Agata
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( 095 32 00 44; Piazza del Duomo; 8am-noon & 4-7pm) Sporting an impressive marble
facade with columns from Catania's Roman amphitheatre, this cathedral honours the
city's patron, St Agata. The young virgin, whose remains lie sheltered in the cool, vaulted
interior, famously resisted the advances of the nefarious Quintian (AD 250) and was hor-
ribly mutilated. Her jewel-drenched effigy is ecstatically venerated on 5 February in one
of Sicily's largest festivals.
CATHEDRAL
La Pescheria
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(Via Pardo; 7am-2pm) The best show in Catania is this bustling fish market, where
vendors raucously hawk their wares in Sicilian dialect, while decapitated swordfish cast
sidelong glances at you across silvery heaps of sardines on ice.
Equally colourful is the adjoining food market , with carcasses of meat, skinned sheep's
heads, strings of sausages, huge wheels of cheese and piles of luscious fruits and veget-
ables all rolled together in a few noisy, jam-packed alleyways.
MARKET
Graeco-Roman Theatre & Odeon
RUINS
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